Because it helps to increase transparency and trust in transactions, blockchain will lead to development of large "ecosystems," or business networks that will use it.

6. By 2021, 20 percent of all activities in which an individual engages will involve at least one of the top seven digital giants.

Those companies are Google, Apple, Facebook, Amazon in the U.S., and Chinese firms Baidu, Alibaba and Tencent. It means consumers will be more reliant on the services of large digital services business than ever before -- becoming as essential as utilities.

7. Spending on innovation won't be cheap. Gartner estimates that for every $1 earmarked for innovation, it will take another $7 to execute. Why? Because data centers aren't modernized, and new and unfamiliar technologies may be needed, such as machine learning.

The new technologies will mean that skills also will have to be improved, Plummer said.

8. IoT data will result in a small increase in storage demand. The internet of things will produce a lot of data, but by 2018 that data will increase storage demand by less than 3 percent. The reason is most IoT data won't be retained, and algorithms will determine what data needs to be saved.

9. By 2022, the IoT will save consumers and businesses $1 trillion a year. Sensors, for instance, will be used for such services as predicting when hardware maintenance is needed.

10. The use of fitness trackers will increase. By 2020, Gartner estimates that 40 percent of employees can cut their healthcare costs by wearing a fitness tracker.